Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-10-27
HItstellaue0ns.
RUSSIAN NEWSPAPERS.
ONLY 600 JOURNALS PUBLISHED IN
TIE CARS ENTIRE EMPIRE.
All the Noted Newspapers Conducted by
Independent Writers Have Been Abol-
ished-OHcial Statistics-Why Russia Is
Almost Newspaperless-warn


ished-oficial Satisfactorily Russia Is
Almost Newspaperless-warnin
A complete stagnation threatens the
Russian press. 1t is not because nova
days there are no able writers in Russia.
The trouble is that the present minister Of
the interior, Count d. Tolstoi, has sue
ceeded in abolishing all the noted journals
conducted by talented and independent
writers. The list Of the periodical publ
cations that have been suppressed during
the last six years is far more interesting
and valuable than all the papers now liv-
ing. Now there is no originality about
Russian journals, no freshness and none
OF that domestic stirring interest which
in the days gone by used to so much at
tract attention in all parts of the great
empire.
The suspended Golos CThe Voice has
left fully 80, 600 subscribers without any
paper to their taste, for none of them dare
to defend the constitutional form of the
government as The Golos did. In the
sixties, when the cZar-liberator tried to
free the press from the iron grip Of the
censor, Nicholas Tchernyshevsky started
The Contemporary Review, a monthly in
which he taught the Russian public for
the government measures. 1t is impos-
sible in this country even to imagine
what whrlwind of public opinion he
raised as by magic. But even the liber-
ator could not long stand such freedom Of
discussion, and Tchernyshevsky was sent
to Siberia for seven years and kept there
for fifteen. But the martyroloGy of lie
Russian editors and writers is too long to
he given here.
The number of periodicals issued in
Russia amounts to little over 600 AS
the population of the cars empire is
105, 900, 900, it is evident then that it takes
175, coo Russian subjects to support one
periodical, whereas in the United States
every 1000 souls support some publica-
ton.
RUssIA's 400 PERIODICALS.
Putting aside 200 periodicals published
in other than the Russian language, the
400 Russian periodicals are classified as
follows: Daily, 30; weekly, 50; monthly,
81; several times per week, 40; several
times per year, 1873. Nearly onehalf the
Russian periodicals are published in the
capital of the empire st. Petersburg, and
third in seven of the largest towns,
leaving for the rest of the great empire less
than 100 periodicals. In the czar's country
there are many towns Of 10000, 1000,
or even 10000 inhabitants which have not
a periodical Of any kind The whole of
Siberia, with 1000, 900 of population, has
only two newspapers and bi-monthly of
geographical society.
According to the official statistics fur
nished by the post department last year
in Rus, "a there passed through the mail
about 1900, coo copies of Russian peri
odicals of all sorts, and 4, 500, 600 of for
eign periodicals were received in Russia
Thus it appears that there is not for each
subject of the car during year even
single copy of any periodical, Russian or
foreign.
Why is the Russian press so insignifi-
cant as to its volume? Some say it is be-
cause fully so per cent of the Russians
are illterate. But if the educated and
schooled Russians would read newspapers
as freely as Americans do, then in Russia
there would be 5000 periodicals instead of
600. There are other causes that make
the ears country almost newspaperless
In the first place, there is no political life
at all, and the industrial life there is
in its embryotic state. Russians have
not so much news to exchange as the
people in other countries have. In the
second place. the autocratic government
Systematically and most s,reuucusly OPP
poses the growth of the press. Cars have
always been aware that writer's, even
though in the clutches of ceusors and
under political supervision, are apt to
think for themselves, to argue and to
criticise Thus they develop i'll them
selves and in their readers the qualities
most decidedly Objectionable in imperial
subjects. Every job printer in Russia
must procure police certificate of good
character and furnish bonds, and every
publisher, besides these qualifications
must maintain an imperial inspector at
his own establishment.
In Russia every editor of prominence
must pass part of his life in prison If
we add to that the fatal ministerial warn
ings, prohibition of inserting advertise
ments heavy fines and suspension, we
shall wonder not that there are so few
periodicals, but that among Russians
there are men and women ready to enter
the career of journalist, which ranks in
danger next to that of conspirator.-Mo
COW Letter.